Sunday, September 26, 2010

Misconceptions, Jesus & Santa Claus...

I got to give a preach in church on Sunday, which was awesome. I love getting the opportunity to share within this community. I talked about some of the misconceptions we have about how God views us. Here’s my sermon in two parts…

You probably didn’t know this about me, but I believed in Santa Claus until I was pretty old. Older then most kids. Why was this? When I was about 6 or 7 I remember one Christmas Eve night looking out my window and seeing Santa Claus (or what I thought was the man in red) In reality the city I lived in thought it would be cute to fly a helicopter with special lights over the city while playing recorded sleigh bell sounds (with a few ho-ho-ho’s sprinkled in) through a PA system. When I looked out my window that night, my young mind was convinced that I had seen Santa. Most people stop believing in Mr.Claus because an older brother or sister spoils the fun, or because some big mouthed kid at school tells. When a girl in my class tried to share the news with everyone, I was not convinced. After all, I had actually seen Santa with my own eyes. Eventually my mom had to sit me down and have a conversation with me about what I’d seen. I think I was 12!

The point is things weren’t exactly what they seemed. But I saw what I thought was truth, and believing it had a major affect on me.

I think we sometimes look at God and see things about him that aren’t true. Those things then have an affect on how we look at him, and how we look at ourselves in relationship with him.

Watch this video…In a funny way it shows how we sometimes view Jesus and how he feels about us.

Misconceptions from the video:

1. We can never make God happy.

2. God is angry with us.

3. All God wants to do is point out all of the things we’ve done wrong

4. There is no hope for us,

5. We need to be perfect, or at our best for God to really love us

6. We’re so messed up, that not even Jesus can help us.

If we’re being honest, all of us have felt one of those things at some point in our spiritual journey. But what does the bible have to say about these misconceptions?

Psalm 103: 7-12

“The Lord is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He will not constantly accuse us, nor remain angry forever. He does not punish us for all our sins; he does not deal harshly with us as we deserve. For his unfailing love toward those who fear him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.”

I just want to point out a few things about these awesome verses.

1. God is slow to get angry. He’s not up in heaven on his throne fists clenched just waiting for us to screw up so he can punish us. He’s slow to anger and as the next words say he’s FILLED with love.

2. God does not constantly accuse us…AMEN! (if he did he would be so busy with me, he would have not time for anyone else!)

3. God doesn’t give us what we deserve. That’s basically the definition of Grace. We get love and mercy, when we don’t deserve it.

4. …As far as the east is from the west. God has taken our mistakes and cast them as far away from us as he can. It’s like he’s telling us to forget about them, get up and move on. We’re the ones who have a hard time letting go.

I’ll post the part two to this tomorrow, but I have a question for discussion. Please feel free to put your answer in a comment.